124 Patricia M. Y. Chang
in the First Amendment have had such a unique influence in shaping the dynam-
ics of religious institutionalism that it would be imprudent to generalize beyond this
case. The arguments here also particularly reflect the conditions of Christian insti-
tutions within the United States. In part, this is because the theoretical perspectives
discussed in this chapter implicitly rest on the assumption that religious individuals
are empowered by a sense of individual efficacy that is directly shaped by Protestant
Christian worldviews and therefore are most likely to be applicable in these subcul-
tures. These biases are evident in the intellectual history that has shaped the prob-
lems that we see before us. The next section offers a schematic overview of the main
themes that have influenced the study of religious organizations in America since the
1930s.
WEBER’S STUDIES OF THE CHURCH
Much of the inspiration for research on religious organizations comes from Max Weber’s
studies of the Catholic Church. It is through the study of this singular organization that
Weber worked out many of his ideas about authority, legitimacy, and bureaucracy.
One of the central themes that occupied Weber’s attention was the problem of
the “routinization of charisma” (1925/1978: 246). Weber observed that many religious
movements are founded by persons with strong personal charisma but lose strength
after the original leader dies. The death of a leader creates an authority crisis in which
followers face the problem of transferring legitimate authority from a single charismatic
leader who has the emotional loyalty of followers, to a permanent structure that can
facilitate the movement’s continued survival.
As with most issues, Weber saw various solutions to this problem, but was most
intrigued by the way the Catholic Church addressed this issue by institutionalizing
the personal charisma of Christ within a hierarchical system of sacred offices. In this
case, objective structures successfully replaced charismatic leadership, but not without
cost. Weber realized that in the process of its institutionalization, the Church became
deeply committed to the goal of worldly dominion, and was forced to compromise
the purity of its Christian ideals to form the necessary alliance with secular authority
that would help it achieve this goal. In reaction to these compromises, Weber observed
that revolutionizing sects would frequently emerge, championing the pure idealism of
Christ and calling on the Church to return to a more pure vision of Christian idealism.
These sects were sometimes tolerated, sometimes persecuted, and often co-opted as
monastic orders within the Church. Nonetheless, they represent an inherent tension
posed by the routinization of charisma.
Weber’s student, Ernst Troeltsch elaborated Weber’s insights on this topic inThe
Social Teachings of the Christian Churches(Troeltsch 1981). In this text, Troeltsch works
out the spiritual and institutional implications of the tension between the worldly
and ideal goals of the Christian tradition in the historical context of the European
Catholic Church. Troeltsch elaborates the church and sect as sociological ideal types
that he describes as being on the opposite ends of a continuum. In this schema, the
church is characterized by a number of qualities that are consequences of its goal of
achieving world dominion. This goal leads it to be socially conservative, in alliance
with the secular political order, and intent on dominating the masses through various